A Singaporean's guide to living in Thailand

[rectmobile]

Had this for lunch yesterday.

 

[Froggy]

Had this for lunch yesterday.

How? You like it?

That red chili sauce is something new, I've never seen it.

 

[rectmobile]

How? You like it?

That red chili sauce is something new, I've never seen it.

Quite ok for lunch but I am still getting used to the portion. Too small a portion for me. 2 bowls is an overkill for me and I will feel sleepy at office later.

I always need my tummy fixed later on fruits.

 

[Froggy]

PTT Station at Prachautit road near Huay Khwang

The ever present Cafe Amazon at a PTT station

7-Eleven convenient store link with PTT at every PTT station

Bought my favourite ice-cream at the 7-Eleven, 40 baht

You can have a meal at the petrol station, here hawkers preparing for dinner time as its 6.15pm, chicken rice on the left wanton noodle on the right

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[yinyang]

Pu's (Yingluck's nick) not here

 

[Bonut]

How? You like it?

That red chili sauce is something new, I've never seen it.

A bird just flew past.

 

[yinyang]

Given the big sentences to her compatriots, no suprise this​

Yingluck
WANTED

politics August 26, 2017 01:00
By THE NATION

Prawit confirms Yingluck fled far from neighbouring countries.

FORMER prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra has left Thailand and is unlikely to be in any of the neighbouring countries, Deputy Premier and Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan confirmed hours after the Supreme Court issued a warrant for her arrest yesterday.
He said authorities of Singapore, where Yingluck was rumoured to have flown to, had told their Thai counterparts that she had not entered that country.
“We don’t know exactly in which country Yingluck is now,” General Prawit said.
Prawit, who is in charge of the police force, said he would not dismiss a high-ranking police officer rumoured to have helped Yingluck flee the country.
There was speculation that the former prime minister could have fled to Cambodia, Singapore, Hong Kong or Dubai.

A security source said Yingluck went to Koh Chang in the eastern seaboard province of Trat and flew in a helicopter to Phnom Penh, from where she reportedly took a chartered plane to Singapore. She was accompanied by a senior state official who helped facilitate her departure without having to pass proper immigration process, according to the source.

The Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions yesterday issued an arrest warrant for Yingluck after she failed to turn up for the verdict reading in the negligence case against her over her government’s rice-pledging scheme. The court postponed the verdict reading to September 27 and ordered the seizure of Yingluck’s Bt30-million bail.

Red-shirt leaders and Yingluck’s lawyers yesterday said they were unaware of her whereabouts. However, a senior figure from her Pheu Thai Party said she had fled the country on Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday.
Requesting anonymity, the senior source in the Shinawatras’ political party said, “It’s impossible she left without the military’s green light.”

Democrat Party deputy leader Nipit Intarasombat yesterday said the ruling junta National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) should also be held responsible for Yingluck’s escape.
“Did the NCPO let her escape? She was still in the country a day or two before. In the next 24 hours, she must be arrested. If she can’t be arrested, the NCPO will get into trouble,” the politician said.

Deputy national police chief Pol General Srivara Rangsibhramanakul yesterday said he has ordered police searches of Yingluck’s houses in Bangkok and in the provinces after an arrest warrant for her was issued. Court permission was needed for police to conduct searches.
Srivara said police have not had confirmation from any neighbouring country that Yingluck had fled there.

Yingluck’s mobile phone signals were detected as coming from her house in Bangkok’s Bueng Kum area, according to a police source.
After news of Yingluck’s no-show, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said he assigned authorities to check her whereabouts. “I have assigned officials to check the borders and transit points to find out where she is,” he said.
Immigration Bureau commissioner Pol Lt-General Nathathorn Prousoontorn said there was no indication that Yingluck sought to leave the country through the normal immigration procedure.

“I affirm that, up to now, there is no record of Yingluck leaving the country via any immigration checkpoint, including those at the airports and on the borders,” Nathathorn said.

He said the former prime minister has been prohibited from leaving the country since May 19, 2015, when the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions accepted the state lawsuit against her.
He said if Yingluck had left on a private jet, a record of the flight would have appeared in the Immigration Bureau’s online database. However, had she left discreetly via a land border, the bureau would have no record of it, he acknowledged. He said the last time Yingluck was known to have left Thailand was in late 2014, when she travelled to Japan.

In 2008, Yingluck’s elder brother Thaksin Shinawatra also opted to leave the country before the same court sentenced him in absentia to two years in jail for abuse of power while serving as prime minister. He has lived in self-exile overseas while retaining his influence in Pheu Thai and Thai politics. Analysts say if both siblings are now in exile, their time in Thailand’s political arena is over, AFP reported.
“It is the end of the Shinawatras and the Pheu Thai Party in politics,” said Puangthong Pawakpan, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University.
“With two family members as fugitives, the family loses political legitimacy,” she said, adding that Yingluck’s departure would be welcomed by a junta weary of the prospect of her political martyrdom in jail.

Assoc Prof Adisorn Naowanont, a lecturer at Rajabhat Nakhon Ratchasima University, said that with Yingluck’s escape he expected Pheu Thai to become weaker and the ruling junta to remain in power for at least seven to eight years, as it would get backing from more and more political parties.

Meanwhile, former finance minister Korn Chatikavanij expressed surprise that Yingluck failed to show up for the verdict. “I’m surprised she has fled, as she has a chance of being acquitted,” he said.
Korn, a senior Democrat Party politician, also said he disagreed with the Finance Ministry’s move to seize Yingluck’s assets in order to pay for the cost of the controversial subsidy programme.

Asset seizure should be undertaken via the trial process, in the same way the Supreme Court had done in the case of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, he said. The ministry’s order for asset seizure could be seen as a political ploy by the junta government, the ex-minister added.
Kalin Sarasin, chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, expressed relief after Yingluck did not turn her up for the Supreme Court verdict reading yesterday. “Political confrontation would lessen after Yingluck did not show up at the court, and this would improve the political climate,” he said.
Looking forward, the private sector expects political stability, he added.
He also said that foreign investors were not much concerned about yesterday’s verdict but they were more worried about whether it was safe to live in Thailand and whether they could make a profit.

 

[rectmobile]

I’m surprised she has fled, as she has a chance of being acquitted

I am sorry to say that the chance to being acquitted is near zero when you have a system that seize the asset of a political opponent unjustly. That is just downright dirty.

But hey, Thai food is good.

 

[yinyang]

Escape route

 

[yinyang]

 

[yinyang]

Complicity by junta, to cut exit deal?
Now the latest word is trying for political asylum in UK

 

[Bonut]

What is the situation of Suvarnabhumi Airport now ? Are the queues still long ?

Donmeung was a little nightmare the last time I flew AirAsia. Arriving was swift and departing was pain in the ass. The immigration was separated by a partition wall, and the moment in walked in it felt like some gospel rally.

 

[Leongsam]

What is the situation of Suvarnabhumi Airport now ? Are the queues still long ?

Donmeung was a little nightmare the last time I flew AirAsia. Arriving was swift and departing was pain in the ass. The immigration was separated by a partition wall, and the moment in walked in it felt like some gospel rally.

Fly business class. There's separate customs and immigration lanes with no queues whatsoever. To crown it all the staff are actually polite and courteous.

 

[yinyang]

What is the situation of Suvarnabhumi Airport now ? Are the queues still long ?
Donmeung was a little nightmare the last time I flew AirAsia. Arriving was swift and departing was pain in the ass.

You maybe now better off with the new auto clearance for Sg passports

Don M is more of a domestic airport, with the hordes at peak hours and claustrophobic taxi Q. Worse off with 4-5hrs arrival fiasco recently.
Powers to be had to order +200 bums (where were they hibernating till now?).

My experience with departing at Suva is the humans crush at security for peak morning periods 0800-0930 (before new auto clearance thingy).
Best to allow 1 hour for security + immigration. No electronic scan of your e-boarding pass at both, it's a manual glance over.

You can opt for priority lane if you get Apec card, sit ahead of cattle class, or senior citizen (>70), disabled:

http://www.suvarnabhumiairport.com/en/1856-suvarnabhumi-priority-lane-services

 

[Froggy]

Went to Siam Paragon today for shopping and stopped at a beef noodle restaurant. Said that they serve premium beef only, saw the menu its quite expensive for a bowl of beef noodle:

Starts at 180 baht to 450 baht for local beef ; 550-950 baht for Japanese beef. This is excluding the noodle its another 25 baht. (prices exclude 10% service charge and 7% VAT have to add 17% more meaning price of a bowl of beef with noodle 240 baht ($10) to 1,140 baht ($47)


A bowl of beef noodle in Bangkok can be have for 50 baht or $2 so $10-47 is rather expensive. I ordered a beehoon and a bowl of under-rib beef total 375 baht (440 baht with sc and vat) that $18 just for these 2 items, also ordered a bean curd pork fried dumpling and a bottle of water.

First thing I noticed is the meat is quite a lot. The meat is thinly sliced (Japanese style) very fresh and just cooked some parts still raw a little, perfect for me.

I'd say its at least 4 times more than normal $2 type

Bean curd fried dumpling

The shop

Receipt ($26)

 

[Bonut]

You maybe now better off with the new auto clearance for Sg passports

Don M is more of a domestic airport, with the hordes at peak hours and claustrophobic taxi Q. Worse off with 4-5hrs arrival fiasco recently.
Powers to be had to order +200 bums (where were they hibernating till now?).

My experience with departing at Suva is the humans crush at security for peak morning periods 0800-0930 (before new auto clearance thingy).
Best to allow 1 hour for security + immigration. No electronic scan of your e-boarding pass at both, it's a manual glance over.

You can opt for priority lane if you get Apec card, sit ahead of cattle class, or senior citizen (>70), disabled:

http://www.suvarnabhumiairport.com/en/1856-suvarnabhumi-priority-lane-services

Did you apply for the auto clearance ? Is it operative ? Or just a suggestion ?

Where to apply ?

** Checked. WEF 19 August, no need to apply or register at immigration. Shiok ah !

 

[yinyang]

Froggy, you probably testing our eyesight with white text. :p

 

[Froggy]

Froggy, you probably testing our eyesight with white text. :p

Sorry mate, done.

 

[Froggy]

Went to an Isaan restaurant known as Crokmai, Isaan is North East region in Thailand known for its own culture and language and food of course. It is also the largest region in Thailand compare to North, South, East, West and Central regions. Isaan is also the region that produces the best Thai jasmine rice and also best sticky rice.

The restaurant

Sticky rice beautifully wrapped in banana leave

Started with some fermented crab somtam

Roasted crickets

Roasted bamboo caterpillar which is actually a larva of a certain moth

Bee larvae in honeycomb

 

[Froggy]

Roasted sticky rice coated with egg

Deep fried duck beak

Mushroom and snail curry

Super delicious

Grill chicken Isaan style

with lots of Thai basils